Friday, February 22, 2013

Recipe for Cannellini Bean and Sausage Stew with Tomatoes and Basil

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this delicious stew with cannellini beans, sausage, tomatoes, and fresh basil or pesto added at the end is a delicious winter meal that I first posted in January 2009.)

I can get fixated on soup in the winter, but let me make it clear that this phase-one recipe with cannellini beans, chicken sausage, tomatoes, and basil is definitely a stew and not a soup. This simple rustic dish was amazingly addictive. It's also a recipe that's very flexible, so if you don't have exactly the ingredients I used, experiment with what you have. Cannellinis are white kidney beans, and I've been infatuated with them ever since I got the recipe for Cannellini Beans in Mint Marinade, but you can make this with any type of dried white beans, or even canned beans if you prefer.

If you use the Aidell's sausage with cheese, don't be alarmed that the cheese will ooze out and brown on the bottom of the pan when you're browning the sausage. This will dissolve when you cook the stew, similar to the Italian practice of dissolving a parmesan rind in soup.

This is the base of the stew simmering with sausage, onion, garlic, tomatoes, chicken stock, and some dried herbs.

After that simmers for 30 minutes, add the cooked beans and simmer a bit longer. I cooked my beans in a pressure cooker, but you can certainly cook them in a regular pot, or even use canned beans.

Cannellini Bean and Sausage Stew with Tomatoes and Basil
(Makes 4-6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn)

For cooking dried beans: Whether you use the pressure cooker or cook beans in a regular pot, start by soaking 1 cup dried cannellini beans over night. Discard that soaking water and start with fresh water, whichever cooking method you're using.

To cook beans in pressure cooker: Add beans to pressure cooker with water to cover, 1/2 onion and 3-4 bay leaves. Bring to high pressure and cook 2-3 minutes (depending on how soft you like your beans.) Then turn off heat and let beans reduce pressure slowly while you prep other ingredients and simmer the base of the stew. When pressure is completely reduced, drain beans in colander in the sink.

To cook beans in regular pot: Add beans to pot with water to cover by several inches, 1/2 onion, and 3-4 bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook beans until soft, probably about 45 minutes, but cooking time will depend on the freshness of the beans. When beans are soft, drain in colander in the sink.

To use canned beans: Put 2 cans cannellini beans into colander placed in the sink. Rinse well with cold water, until no more foam appears. Let beans drain and use in recipe. (This is slightly more beans than the 1 cup of dried beans; you can freeze a few for another recipe if you like.)

While beans are cooking (or draining) cut sausage into half lengthwise, then cut into half-moon shaped slices. Heat about 1 tsp. olive oil in heavy dutch oven or soup pot, then saute sausage until well browned, about 5 minutes. (See note above if you're using sausage with cheese.) When sausage is well-browned, remove to bowl, then add chopped onion and saute about 2 minutes, adding more oil if needed. After 2 minutes, add chopped garlic and saute about 2 minutes more.

Add tomatoes and juice, dried oregano, dried marjoram, and chicken stock to pot with onions and garlic. Add sausage back to pot, then cook at very low simmer about 30 minutes, until flavors are well blended and liquid is slightly reduced. After 30 minutes. add drained beans and simmer about 15 minutes more. (If the mixture seems too dry at this point, add a bit more chicken stock or a little water.)

Anyone who doesn't know that the South Beach Diet is built around low-glycemic eating may be surprised to find that dried beans are a phase one food, but beans are what South Beach considers a "good carb," one that digests slowly. Beans are limited for phase one though, so I like to use beans combined with plenty of protein and vegetables.

Nutritional Information? I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

Blogger Disclosures: Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and Kalyn's Kitchen earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

This is the sort of stew i just love - but I do it with vegetarian sausages (unlike Dani we have had so little heat in Melbourne that I posted a recipe on this theme last night - but it was sausage and chickpea and veg curry)

Kalyn, i'm on day 15 of SouthBeach and staying focused on phase 1. I just want to say that I'm hanging in there cause of your awesome recipes! Hungarian PotRoastYour black bean Chili are both to die for! I got all excited when I saw this, cause beans really stick to your ribs in a great way, you don't feel like your dieting!Anyhow, I was wondering what grocery stores you shop at? I want to try the Aidells Sausage, but with having 2 kids, I don't want to drive around to every store to find it. Thanks!

Crystal, glad to hear you are enjoying the recipes and doing well on South Beach, I got the chicken sausage at Costco and in Salt Lake I also shop at Smith's Marketplace and Albertsons. I think any type of chicken sausage will work here, especially one that's garlicy.

You said "The stew has too many ingredients to be one of my Easy South Beach Recipes, but it's still very simple to make."

It may have a lot of ingredients, but all one really has to do is chop the onion and the garlic (unless you use frozen chopped onion and garlic from a jar). The number of ingredients in a dish doesn't make it "easy" or "simple." It's what cooks have to do with the ingredients. Or, as an acquaintance once said -- "simple" is not difficult to understand; "easy" is not difficult to do. This is most certainly not difficult to do!

Glad people are like this so much! I want to make it again soon myself

Anonymous, the reason I chose South Beach was because I didn't want to count carbs, calories, fat grams or anything else, so I don't provide nutritional information. I think there are a number of online programs where you can type in the ingredients and figure it out yourself though if it's important to you.

Kalyn, when I looked at my packet of dried beans it said that you must (after soaking) bring them to the boil and fast boil them for 10 minutes, and discard the water, before you cook them for the rest of the time. But I noticed you didn't mention that in your instructions. Do you do that?Thanks :)

Debs, I haven't ever done that. I do always discard the water the beans were soaked in; I will edit the instructions a little to make sure that's clear.

If you have a problem digesting beans the tip they gave might be helpful, because that few minutes of pre-cooking time then discarding that water would get out some of the starches from the beans so they wouldn't be in the final dish.

I just made this yesterday and it was delish!!! I'm eating leftovers for breakfast. I actually went to bed thinking about it. I love all of your recipes. This blog is saving my life. I've been on South Beach now for 3 weeks. I'm doing Phase 1 for a month and your blog has helped me with this diet TREMENDOUSLY!

The best new recipe I have tried in a long time. I was planning to make it Friday, but we are having an ice storm, so I bumped it up to today. WOW. Subtle flavors, nothing overpowering, super easy, and inexpensive. Do you think it would freeze well, or would be beans be too mushy?

Made this tonight and it was fantastic. Thanks so much for posting it. I had never had cannellini beans before and actually only looked for a recipe for them after I picked up a bag by mistake (was going for white beans and not paying enough attention). I added some spinach and lemon juice, the latter because I didn't have any balsamic on hand. So delicious. Thanks again.

I like this cannelini bean sausage soup. these soup are sure to taste great and are extremely nutritious as well. I am going to make it for the holidays when my kids will be at home. I'll be sure that what they are eating is healthy.

Made this tonight (the first chilly day of fall here in Virginia), and LOVED it! Used navy beans because that's what I had. Still great!One question, though -- ingredients states 1/2 onion, and then instructions say 1/2 onion with the beans, and another 1/2 onion sautéed with the garlic. Didn't really matter; since I was doubling the recipe, I just did both. But you might want to clarify.Thanks for a really delicious recipe that even my sausage-hating wife loved!

Great recipe!!! I did everything like the recipe except for the basil (or pesto), and I used canned beans. I also made mine in the crockpot. It was wonderful. We just finished supper and I only have about one helping left (too bad, I love leftovers). I left the sausage to my husband and enjoyed it as a vegetable soup. Another great, healthy recipe!!

hi kalyn - i'm not on any specific diet, but love your blog for the great recipes!

that said, sounds like kale would be a great addition in this soup (sausage, beans, and kale!) but if i added it, when would be a good time, and how much would you recommend? (i'm not the most inventive or skilled chef yet!)

Hi Kalyn - just wanted to let you know that we tried this recipe for dinner last night and it was delicious! My husband has asked that all of the recipes I've tried of yours are put into our regular dinner rotation. Thank you!

Made this tonight, and OMGoodness...I LOVE it! I did add fresh mushrooms because I had some I needed to use. And, I added about 4 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach just because I thought the green would look good. lol I'm sure the recipe was perfect as written, but it was awesome with these two additions too! Hubby and I both on WW and really enjoyed all the flavor in this soup. Thank you!

Just made this a couple of days ago, and it was fantastic. I added a half teaspoon of ground Chipotle (Penzeys) and a chopped orange bell pepper (just because it was in the fridge and needed to be used). We did like the heat from the Chipotle. I'll definitely be making this again. We're not on any diet regimen, but I love your recipes for the great flavors. Thanks.

I'm so happy you're taking the time to comment on Kalyn's Kitchen! I love hearing from people who stop by, especially if you're sharing feedback or asking questions about a recipe I've posted here.

I've recently changed my comment settings so people can comment without signing in, but you will need to check the box to show you're a live person, and comments on older posts won't show up until I publish them. Thanks for understanding!

Food Blogger Love!

Copyright Notice

All Photos and Original Text (C) Copyright: 2005-2015, By Kalyn's Kitchen® LLC. I grant permission for photos and recipe links to be copied to social media and other sites, but not recipe text. All Other Rights Reserved. (Other bloggers may post their adapted version of any recipe found here, with their own photos and recipe text, but please link back to the original inspiring recipe on this site.)

Kalyn's Kitchen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.